Office



(No Model.)

0. CONGELTON PIN.

No. 600,400.A Patented Mar-..8,1898- UNITED STATES PATENT` OFFICE.

OSBORN CONGELTON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE HANDY PIN COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

PIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 600,406, dated March 8, 1898. Application filed October 22, 1897. Serial No. 656,088. (No model-l To all whom t nung concern:

Beit known that I, OsBoRN CONGELTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvem ents in Pins, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to fastening devices,

and it belongs more particularly to the class known as safety-pins. Its features of novelty and utility may be summarized as follows: first, the provision in a single piece of wire having its ends pointed of certain curvatures and formations of said wire, enabling the pointed ends to be engaged separately in material to form a fastening or connection and enabling said pointed ends to hold against pressure or strain arising in usage, together with means having the twofold object of retaining the portion of material impaled by each pointed end of the device and at the same time serving to guard the operators fingers from injury by pricking; second, means in a device of the above description having its pointed ends separated by a coil in the wire situated approximately centrally thereof, whereby one of said ends is adapted to impale, conne, or engage with a larger bulk of material than the other end.

In order that my said invention may be clearly understood and explained in detail, I have annexed hereto a sheet of drawings, in which three figures are shown, each of said figures illustrating structural dierences in my improved fastening device, but each of said figures embodying the main feature of invention-viz., the means enabling a double-pointed pin to engage with and imite adjacent substances without the danger of accidental disengagement or of wounding the user.

Referring now particularly to Figure 1, which illustrates a certain form of my invention and comprises a piece of wire formed as seen and pointed at its ends, a indicates a coil or convolution formed approximately centrally of the device, and b b indicate arms which extend in opposite directions, springing from said central coil a in the manner shown. The arms b h are each curved or corrugated in their outward path t0 afford pliability, at c c' c2, the curves c c lying approximately in the plane of the upper portionof coil a, the curvature c being continued to a point d, approximately in a plane with the lower portion of coil a, from which point it is extended inwardly in said plane to a point adjacent to the curvature c2. As seen in the drawings, Fig. l, the lower surface of the curvature c2 and the pointed end of armharein juxtaposition, they together in fact forming a narrow neck or entrance to the inclosure e, said neck being capable of spring expansion for the forcible admittance of a greater bulk of material impaled upon the pointed end, and the shoulder f serving to retain said material within the inclosure e upon the spring retraction. The shoulder g, which lies approximately in a vertical plane with the extreme point of arm b, serves as a check to prevent said point from entering the flesh of the user should he accidentally touch said point. Both of the arms b are identical in every respect, and their pointed ends lie, preferably, in the same plane, pointing toward a common center, the plane of said pointed ends being preferably a trie below the lower curvature of the coil a.

In the employment of this device it is common to first engage one pointed end thereof with (for example) one of the meeting parts of a garment about a person, and the portion of material having entered the inclosure e the opposite pointed end of the device is drawn over to preferably an extremely distant position upon the other of the meeting parts of said garment, where said pointed end is inserted, and the material by the tension naturally set up is drawn within its inclosure c, the device thus forming a perfect fastening. The fastener is as easily removed as applied, and it is preferably held by the coiled portion abetween the finger and thumb when being attached or disconnected.

Fig. 2 differs from the foregoing in that one of its arms, as h, while having the general outline of the arms b, is devoid of the curvatures c c c2, extending instead in a preferably straight line from the coil d to its degree of In Fig. 3 is seen a slightly-diiferent struc-V ture, wherein a loop r is formed and continues into the arms s t, the arm s comprising a straight portion s', having bend s2, which continues to form an inturned pointed end s3, as seen, the curved continuation being provided with a loop r or other bend, said loop serving the purpose of a check to prevent the further rearward passage of material impaled upon the pointed end. The arm t extends from loop r in a straight line, as seen, is continued into loop u, and extends therefrom in the curvature u', terminating in an inturned pointed end u2, as seensaid pointed end u2 lying contiguous to the lower surface of loop u, which latter forms a guard therefor. While for convenience I characterize the material of my fastener as a piece of wire, I intend this term to cover any material that can be used, whether it be in cross-section either round, flat, oval, square, or otherwise. I also wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself in this application to the employment of any particular material in the constructing of my fastening devices, although I prefer to use a spring material; nor do I limit myself to the exact details of construction herein shown and described, realizing fully that various other modifications may be utilized, all within the scope of my invention; but

, I desire to claim, broadly, as follows:

1. A fastening device comprising an elongated member, formed into a coil with extending arms, said arms each bearing a bend forming a shoulder or stop intermediately located between the coil and pointed ends, and said arms being inwardly turned, and terminating in inwardly-turned pointed ends which lie in approximately a like plane, a bend and a pointed end being contiguous to each other for the purposes substantially as set forth.

2. A fasteningdevice comprising an elongated member formed into a coil with arms extending in approximately opposite directions from said coil, said arms as they extend having a bend, and beyond said bend being inwardly turned and terminating in pointed ends; the said bend acting as a shoulder to limit the attacking power of said pointed ends; together with a check situated upon one of said arms to limit the rearward passage of material impaled thereon.

3. The combination in an elongated member of a coil having extending arms provided with a bend to serve as a shoulder or stop, said arms being inturned beyond said bend and terminating in inturned pointed ends, a check u being situated upon one of said arms for` the purposes substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 20th day of October, 1897.

OSBORN CONGELTON.

Witnesses:

L. T. SULLIVAN, ToM WATSON. 

